Live data from Hacker News

A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

smithsonianmag.com

11–20 of 296 posts

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#11
post #10

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Both things ring fairly true

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#12

A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio

> A tesla Model 3 motor already is partially a reluctance motor. This youtube video describes it rather well, and I'd recommend giving it a watch [1]. Notice the air gaps - thats the reluctance part of the rotor.

> [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esUb7Zy5Oio

I dont think he's using air gaps?

"Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor."

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#13
post #3

It’s always the same, “ creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

That's fine, as long as it's not some phoney PR thing like "...well and their parents happen to world experts of the same thing", or own a business around this, etc.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#15
post #3

It’s always the same, “ creates revolutionary thing”. And then nothing comes out of it.

Usually because has made a prototype of an already well-established phenomenon, and the really difficult part is making a production-ready design.

A bit like the "10-year-old makes a heart pump for just $10" stories. It's really easy to hook up a motor to some pipes, it's absurdly hard to make that pass medical regulations.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#16
post #7

> Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. His design has other components, but he can’t disclose any more details because he hopes to patent the technology in the future. ah well great, we'll all just twiddle our thumbs waiting on that then instead of collaborating on how to integrat…

While many of us are against certain types of patents, this is exactly what patents are for- protecting the invention of an inventor for a very limited time (20 years, it used to be 7 if I recall). In return, society gets the invention "source code" in the form of what is essentially exactly how to reproduce the invention.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#17
post #7

> Instead of using air gaps, Sansone thought he could incorporate another magnetic field into a motor. This would increase this saliency ratio and, in turn, produce more torque. His design has other components, but he can’t disclose any more details because he hopes to patent the technology in the future. ah well great, we'll all just twiddle our thumbs waiting on that then instead of collaborating on how to integrat…

> ah well great, we'll all just twiddle our thumbs waiting on that then instead of collaborating on how to integrate the good ideas here into existing large scale manufacturing.

So what's your alternative? Inventors are required to share everything freely, and never profit from their work?

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#19
post #10

Inspiring story all round but this paragraph stood out for me: “I didn't have a mentor to help me, really, so each time a motor failed, I had to do tons of research and try and troubleshoot what went wrong,” he says. “But eventually on the 15th motor, I was able to get a working prototype.” I imagine most 17 year old would not have kept going 15+ times until they arrived at something which worked.

Really? In my observations only 17 year olds have the time and patience to do crap like this.

Only if their parents have blocked TikTok, most of YouTube, and PlayStation.

Re: A 17-year-old designed a novel synchronous reluctance motor

#20
post #14

Why are there no improvements in traditional petrol engines? They basically convert 60% into heat. Like use the heat to run a steam engine?

There have been huge improvements since the first petrol engine, and huge improvements in the last 20 years as well. Petrol engines are some of the most studied and meticulously engineered things ever created.
Post reply on HN